In case you somehow missed it, the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees, presented by Lily Collins and Tessa Thompson, an event growing in stature and significance each year. Not only is the roll-out of such exceptional work from the indie film scene an integrated part of the Academy Awards build-up, it is also an exciting, essential recognition of the diverse, unique talent on show.
Oscarologists are likely to get their knickers in a twist over both the films hitting big in many categories, as well as those missing out on several, or not showing up at all. In the meantime, though, let’s continue to celebrate and embrace the innovative work of independent cinema, with these nominations and beyond.
BEST FEATURE
Call Me By Your Name
Lady Bird
Get Out
The Florida Project
The Rider
BEST FIRST FEATURE
Columbus
Ingrid Goes West
Menashe
Oh Lucy!
Patti Cake$
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD
Dayveon
A Ghost Story
Life and nothing more
Most Beautiful Island
The Transfiguration
BEST DIRECTOR
Sean Baker (The Florida Project)
Jonas Carpignano (A Ciambra) Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) Jordan Peele (Get Out) Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie (Good Time) Chloé Zhao (The Rider)
BEST SCREENPLAY
Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird)
Azazel Jacobs (The Lovers) Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Jordan Peele (Get Out) Mike White (Beatriz at Dinner)
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Kris Avedis, Kyle Espeleta, Jesse Wakeman (Donald Cried)
Emily V. Gordon, Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick)
Ingrid Jungermann (Women Who Kill)
Kogonada (Columbus)
David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer (Ingrid Goes West)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Thimios Bakatakis (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) Elisha Christian (Columbus)
Hélène Louvart (Beach Rats) Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me by Your Name) Joshua James Richards (The Rider)
BEST EDITING
Ronald Bronstein, Benny Safdie (Good Time)
Walter Fasano (Call Me by Your Name)
Alex O’Flinn (The Rider)
Gregory Plotkin (Get Out)
Tatiana S. Riegel (I, Tonya)
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Salma Hayek (Beatriz at Dinner) Frances McDormand (Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri) Margot Robbie (I, Tonya) Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird) Shinobu Terajima (Oh Lucy!) Regina Williams (Life and nothing more)
BEST MALE LEAD
Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) Harris Dickinson (Beach Rats) James Franco (The Disaster Artist) Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) Robert Pattinson (Good Time)
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Holly Hunter (The Big Sick) Allison Janney (I, Tonya) Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird) Lois Smith (Marjorie Prime) Taliah Lennice Webster (Good Time)
BEST SUPPORTING MALE
Nnamdi Asomugha (Crown Heights) Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name) Barry Keoghan (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) Bennie Safdie (Good Time)
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD
Mudbound (Director: Dee Rees; Casting Directors: Billy Hopkins, Ashley Ingram; Ensemble Cast: Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Carey Mulligan)
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM
BPM (Beats Per Minute), France (Robin Campillo)
A Fantastic Woman, Chile (Sebastián Lelio)
I Am Not a Witch, Zambia (Rungano Nyoni)
Lady Macbeth, U.K. (William Oldroyd)
Loveless, Russia (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Departure (Lana Wilson)
Faces Places (Agnés Varda, JR; Rosalie Varda)
Last Men in Aleppo (Feras Fayyad; Kareem Abeed, Søeren Steen Jespersen, Stefan Kloos)
Motherland (Ramona S. Diaz; Rey Cuerdo)
Quest (Jonathan Olshefski; Sabrina Schmidt Gordon)
BONNIE AWARD – recognizes mid-career female directors with a $50,000 unrestricted grant.
So Yong Kim
Lynn Shelton
Chloé Zhao
JEEP TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by the Jeep brand.
Shevaun Mizrahi (director of Distant Constellation) Jonathan Olshefski (director of Quest) Jeff Unay (director of The Cage Fighter)
KIEHL’S SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD – recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851.
Amman Abbasi (director of Dayveon) Justin Chon (director of Gook) Kevin Phillips (director of SuperDark Times)
PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD – honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality, independent films, includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant funded by Piaget.
Giulia Caruso & Ki Jin Kim
Ben LeClair
Summer Shelton
“Childhood means simplicity. Look at the world with the child’s eye – it is very beautiful.” Kailash Satyarthi
In Sean Baker’s excellent The Florida Project we see the glorious, almost technicolor world through the eyes of six year old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), who is living below the poverty line in post-election America. However, she doesn’t see a bleak world where the working class have to scrape by just to pay the motel room bill for one night, she sees a world full of adventure and awe.
To be young is to see the beauty in the world, and this is what Baker so effortlessly captures in this gem of a film. The film dazzles, but is steeped in realism, a cross between Tim Burton and Ken Loach. There is a dirty grimness to the sunshine landscape of Florida, which to the soft millennial generation would be their idea of hell, but to the generation alpha Moonee and her merry band of friends it offers excitement, entertainment and wonder.
Director Baker has already scored critical success with his brilliant little indie flick Tangerine (2015), which was shot on i-Phone, and he’s not afraid to try new things. He makes sure that his camera is more than just a passive onlooker and allows it to become its own character.
The real world of The Florida Project would make a grown man cry, dirt poor citizens reduced to living in sleazy down ridden motels as they tried to make money in whatever way possible. And in the hands of someone else, The Florida Project could have ended up a very different film, one lacking in humour and humanity. However, Sean Baker has created a careful balance between tragedy and comedy, he isn’t afraid to trend on the dark side showing us a drunken brawl taking place in the motel car park. But he manages to show us how magical life can be, when we join Moonee showing her new friend a fallen down tree which still has green leaves. Even when the situation looks dire, a fallen tree can still offer beauty and hope.
Brooklynn Prince runs away with the film, her acting is truly genuine, and she shines like a real star. Her performance reminded me of the smart wittiness and charm of Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon (1973), however Prince has more sass and is more streetwise. There is already Oscar buzz that she is 2017’s hottest contender for best supporting actress, which needs to happen if there is any justice in this world. She’s a fearless child who has more guts than most adults, and she is an unlikely inspiration (people, we need to be taking a leaf out of her book).
Prince is not the only actor that gives a noteworthy performance, 24-year-old Bria Vinaite as Halley (Moonee’s mother) is a pro at this whole acting lark despite having no previous acting experience whatsoever. Amazingly Baker simply came across her Instagram account and reached out. She’s feisty, real and tough but reveals she has a vulnerable soft side to her. She’s not your average bad Mom, she has a good heart but she’s just a child herself. We know very little about her past, but that’s what makes her character so interesting, it’s not about her troubled past, it’s about her troubled present. She is a victim of the failed welfare system but don’t you dare say that to her face. Vinaite is the opposite of a snowflake, she’s a tough shard of ice.
Willem Dafoe is surely a hot contender for best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of Bobby, the manager of the motel. He’s the father figure for the children, keeping an eye out for them and saving them from sexual predators, a fallen guardian angel if you will. He also takes pity on Halley and is often the only ‘normal’ functioning adult around, and that’s saying something! It’s charming to witness just how much Bobby cares about his rundown motel, painting it purple so it becomes a brilliant contrast from the swampy Florida setting. Dafoe is warm, witty and human in this role and it’s great to see him shaking off the ‘comic book villain’ image. Honestly, there is not a mediocre performance from any of the performers in this film.
Perhaps, what makes The Florida Project truly memorable is it’s glorious scenes set in the daytime which were shot on 35mm film, creating an almost super 8 home film feel, only in the world of The Magic Castle motel, summer lasts forever. This is a film that will only get better with age, it’s a timeless classic and I can only urge you to see it. It’s so refreshing to have a film-maker like Sean Baker on the scene and I’m waiting eagerly to see what he has to offer us next. Keep up the good work, Sean!
The recent announcement of the British Independent Film Awards for the year of 2017 are dominated by breakthrough talent from the indie circuit. The big five shortlisted for the top prize also fill the spots for Director and Screenplay, as well as making a significant chunk of the acting categories.
Starting with the standard long lists, nominations were declared from the couple of hundred various film professionals that break down into groups based on the categories. The discussions follow rounds of confidential voting.
Best British Independent Film
The Death of Stalin
God’s Own Country
I Am Not a Witch
Lady Macbeth
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Screenplay
Armando Iannucci & David Schneider & Ian Martin (The Death of Stalin)
Francis Lee (God’s Own Country)
Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch)
Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth)
Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Director
Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin)
Francis Lee (God’s Own Country)
Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch)
William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth)
Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best British Short
1745
The Entertainer
Fish Story
Work
Wren Boys
Best Actor
Jamie Bell (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool)
Josh O’Connor (God’s Own Country)
Alec Secareanu (God’s Own Country)
Johnny Harris (Jawbone)
Paddy Considine (Journeyman)
Best Actress
Emily Beecham (Daphne)
Ruth Wilson (Dark River)
Margaret Mulubwa (I Am Not a Witch)
Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth)
Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Supporting Actor
Steve Buscemi (The Death of Stalin)
Simon Russell Beale (The Death of Stalin)
Ian Hart (God’s Own Country)
Woody Harrelson (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Supporting Actress
Andrea Riseborough (The Death of Stalin)
Julie Walters (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool)
Kelly Macdonald (Goodbye Christopher Robin)
Naomi Ackie (Lady Macbeth)
Patricia Clarkson (The Party)
Most Promising Newcomer
Harry Michell (Chubby Funny)
Harry Gilby (Just Charlie)
Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth)
Naomi Ackie (Lady Macbeth)
Lily Newmark (Pin Cushion)
The Discovery Award
Even When I Fall
Halfway
Rebecca Clare Evans & Jason Wingard & Hannah Stevenson & Chris Bouckley (In Another Life)
Isolani
My Pure Land
The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director)
Francis Lee (God’s Own Country)
Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch)
Thomas Napper (Jawbone)
William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth)
Deborah Haywood (Pin Cushion)
Debut Screenwriter
Francis Lee (God’s Own Country)
Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch)
Johnny Harris (Jawbone)
Alice Birch (Lady Macbeth)
Gaby Chiappe (Their Finest)
Best Documentary
Almost Heaven
Half Way
Kingdom of Us
Uncle Howard
Williams
Breakthrough Producer
Brendan Mullin & Katy Jackson (Bad Day for the Cut)
Jack Tarling & Manon Ardisson (God’s Own Country)
Emily Morgan (I Am Not a Witch)
Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Lady Macbeth)
Gavin Humphries (Pin Cushion)
Best International Independent Film
The Florida Project
Get Out
I Am Not Your Negro
Loveless
The Square
Best Casting
Sarah Crowe (The Death of Stalin)
Debbie McWilliams (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool)
Shaheen Baig & Layla Merrick-Wolf (God’s Own Country)
Shaheen Baig (Lady Macbeth)
Sarah Halley Finn (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Cinematography
David Gallego (I Am Not a Witch)
Tat Radcliffe (Jawbone)
Ari Wegner (Lady Macbeth)
Thomas Riedelsheimer (Leaning Into the Wind)
Ben Davis (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Costume Design
Suzie Harman (The Death of Stalin)
Sandy Powell (How To Talk To Girls at Parties)
Holly Rebecca (I Am Not a Witch)
Holly Waddington (Lady Macbeth)
Dinah Collin (My Cousin Rachel)
Best Editing
Peter Lambert (The Death of Stalin)
David Charap (Jawbone)
Jon Gregory (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Joe Martin (Us and Them)
Johnny Burke (Williams)
Best Make-Up & Hair Design
Jan Sewell & Mark Coulier (Breathe)
Nicole Stafford (The Death of Stalin)
Julene Paton (I Am Not a Witch)
Nadia Stacey (Journeyman)
Sian Wilson (Lady Macbeth)
Best Music
Christopher Willis (The Death of Stalin)
Matt Kelly (I Am Not a Witch)
Paul Weller (Jawbone)
Fred Frith (Leaning Into the Wind)
Carter Burwell (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Production Design
Cristina Casali (The Death of Stalin)
Eve Stewart (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool)
James Merifield (Final Portrait)
Nathan Parker (I Am Not a Witch)
Jacqueline Abrahams (Lady Macbeth)
Best Sound
Becki Ponting & Ian Wilson (Breathe)
Anna Bertmark (God’s Own Country)
Maiken Hansen (I Am Not a Witch)
Andy Shelley & Steve Griffiths (Jawbone)
Joakim Sundström (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Best Effects
Ronald Grauer & Bernard Newton (The Death of Stalin)
Dan Martin (Double Date)
Luke Dodd (Journeyman)
Nick Allder & Ben White (The Ritual)
Chris Reynolds (Their Finest)
It occurred to me while watching ADDIcted, written and directed by Dan Jenski, that there are not many films these days that deal with the kind of prescribed drug dependency that hovers in and out of young lives, potentially ruining their futures. ADDicted, the clever title indicates the Adderall drug, centers on college students are those around them, family, friends – and how they are all affected in different ways by this common problem.
A fine cast, including familiar faces Starring Kathleen Quinlan (Apollo 13) and Gil Bellows (Ally McBeal) providing veteran support, young Luke Guldan takes the lead role, with Lauren Sweetser, perhaps the stand-out here given her final act story-curve. ADDicted also plays strong hands towards other legitimate issues, the high pressure of education, the importance of a hard-worked career, painful relationships ending, parenthood – all seemingly balanced without all the melodrama. Dan Jenski took some personal experiences of college into his film here, shooting on location at his former college, University of Missouri. The writer-director kindly spared me some ADDitional time to throw some questions at him.
So, ice-breaker, did you get an opportunity to see Dunkirk in IMAX?
I have not! I’m definitely interested in checking it out, but going to a theater to see a film just isn’t my thing, especially nowadays in the digital era. The last movie I saw in a theater, outside of a film festival, was Django Unchained in 2012.
Wow. So, how much do you follow or take notice of the awards season that is now warming up?
Not as much as I used to. Back in the day when acting was my main pursuit, it meant more to me. I used them as sources of motivation.
And did you write creatively as a child and growing up?
Nope. I actually hated writing growing up! It was too long of a process. Still is for me at times. I work extremely fast in my own head and don’t need to write a lot down; I can just draw upon it when needed. I don’t write anything out until it becomes a necessity. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the writing process and the infinite possibilities that come with creating ideas and stories out of thin air; I just procrastinate like heck before I put fingers to the keyboard.
Which filmmakers did you admire? And what are some of your favorite films?
In the early ’80’s it was all [Steven] Spielberg and John Hughes movies. In the 90’s, it was [Martin] Scorsese, David Fincher and Oliver Stone. The 2000s were when I started considering filmmaking as a career and my focus shifted to show runners like David Simon (The Wire) and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad). I want to be running my own show, which is like filming numerous movies back to back to back.
With movies, where do I even begin? The Shawshank Redemption, Jaws, Seven, Cool Hand Luke, Goodfellas, Scarface, Indiana Jones, Evil Dead, Weird Science, Office Space, Dumb and Dumber… So many genres!
Who inspired you to pursue your own journey? Both filmmakers and people in your life.
While I’ve found various filmmakers inspiring, it was me, myself and God that actually made it happen. I’ve always rejected this idea that we’re all supposed to have the same cookie-cutter life. We go to school, go to college, find a career, get a mortgage, start a family, retire at 65… Even as a kid I knew there was more to life.
When I got to college, my plan was to go to law school, but I wasn’t in love with that idea. My mom was, but not me. I started taking acting classes to fill some credits and that’s when I knew I had found what I loved. I hid my love of acting from friends and family because I knew I’d be looked down upon.
With actual filmmaking, everything changed for me when I watched The Wire on HBO. David Simon headed that series and it was so real — not only the drug and cop game but gritty, real life in general. It really showed me that writing/creating is limitless and made me up my game as a writer.
So ADDicted. I found the film handled the subject of young addiction very well. What did you know about this kind of problem with prescription drugs going into this project? And any personal experience?
First of all, I’m glad you feel this way about how the film portrays addiction. I purposely didn’t want to shove an agenda down anyone’s throat or be too on-the-nose, so I’m happy you got what I was serving. The problem with prescription pill abuse, especially Adderall, is that it’s cultivated in a system that allows for addicts to be created. Western medicine is for-profit meaning if something isn’t wrong with you, they’re not making money. And they need customers. Throughout Western medicine you have pushers, promoters and enablers — from doctors and Big Pharma to politicians and lobbyists. Even teachers are financially incentivized to refer kids to psychiatrists! It’s so sad how easily people are bought. I’m not saying all people in this industry are that way but as long as enablers exist, prescription pill abuse will continue.
I fortunately was never put on pills. I was almost put on Ritalin as a child for my behavior. I knew kids on Ritalin and I was also in college when Adderall burst onto the scene. I saw people faking symptoms for a prescription, selling it, buying it and freaking out whenever they ran out of it.
How do you go about writing a screenplay like this, balancing the importance of education, family, health, relationships without being too heavy-handed?
It was definitely a challenge to balance everything. It came down to trial and error in order to find the right mix. You try everything until it all makes sense. I tell people you can put anything you want into a script or into a movie, as long as it makes sense. Also, ADDicted is character-driven, as opposed to plot-driven. It would’ve been very easy to create a drug-induced rager of a film, but that’s simple thinking to me. We’ve seen that before in cinema. I want to look at the actual problems that lead to drug abuse so I portray real people in real moments. When you do something real, it kind of writes itself. You know what your characters will and won’t do and everything falls into place.
Some familiar faces in ADDicted, tell us a bit about the casting process.
There were two parts to this process. One was the casting call we put out via our casting director, which is how we found our lead actor, Luke Guldan as well as some phenomenal talent for the supporting roles.
The second part was contacting a specific actor’s team to see if they’d be interested. For the role of Kate, played by Kathleen Quinlan, we originally reached out to another actor who had accepted the role. This actor’s manager also repped Gil Bellows and Lauren Sweetser so it was a very streamlined process. On day four of filming, we were told that the actress who was set to play Kate had to back out due to personal matters. We were given a list of actors who were also represented by the same agent, we chose Kathleen, and boy did she bring an element all her own to this character! One of the best things that happened to the movie and totally serendipitous!
Directing the picture, what difficulties did you face, and how did you overcome them? Like, which scenes were more challenging than others?
The biggest challenge to me was getting the cast and crew to trust that my team and I knew what we were doing. This was my first-ever feature, but I never went to film school and there were people working for me who had way more set experience. Also, when you film on location in the middle of the country, there’s added pressure to make everyone comfortable and feel at-home while on the road. There was never one huge difficult task or undertaking. It was figuring out how to handle the pressure while being a leader. If you’re the leader and are stressing out in front of everyone, what kind of environment does that create? This was the greatest learning lesson in handling drama, egos, hospitality and efficiency.
The only scenes that were challenging were the ones we had to alter and even improvise because we ran out of time for a given day. To the actors and crew involved: Holy crap we nailed them!
With streaming and video on demand growing all the time, how do you think these platforms are having a positive effect on the film industry?
For the individual filmmaker, it’s the best time to be one. Never before has this amount of exposure been at our fingertips. For instance, ADDicted was accepted onto Amazon Prime, starting December 3rd. Do you know how much exposure we just gained from that? We will soon be inside millions of people’s living rooms. Anyone can watch our film that has a Prime membership and most people do. You can’t put a price tag on that.
So what do you have planned next?
I’ve been developing new films as well as a scripted series that has become my dream project. Scripted series are where it’s at. They allow for so much more character development and story arcs compared to the traditional two-hour movie. I can’t elaborate too much about the subject matter but if you like what I did with ADDicted, you’re going to love what’s next.
I also want to have more of a teaching role in this industry. There are so many outdated ways of thinking and doing, as well as an overall lack of efficiency. I want to revolutionize the film set, the filmmaking process and even film schools. There’s a saying in this industry, “If you can’t, teach” and I’m afraid that too many teachers at film schools and acting coaches have never walked the walk, but they teach and collect a paycheck. These are the people who are supposed to be leading the next generation of filmmakers and thinkers?
So whether it’s through my projects or me directly teaching people as I gain more experience, I want to show everyone the power of thought and that anyone can accomplish whatever it is they want to do. That’s my next thing.
I knew a little about the true story of Christa Worthington, a fashion writer who was involved in a coastal affair, before being brutally murdered. When I sat down to watch Arthur Egeli‘s film based on those events, Murder on the Cape, I went looking into it even further. The screenplay from Egeli has a fresh take on the tragic events, changing the names and even the extent of the title’s pivotal moments. In fact, the film subtly spotlights hard times, the decline of the fishing industry, and several strands of sheer character frustration. So I’m not really giving spoilers when I say there is far more to this than a murder.
Writer-director Arthur Egeli is married to Heather, who has a prominent part in the film, and they are locals to Cape Cod, both familiar with some of the people involved in the original Christa Worthington case. A significant part of Murder on the Cape is based on the accounts of certain people at the time, and many Cape Cod inhabitants appear in the film, which was shot on location. I was lucky enough to have Arthur Egeli answer some of my questions about the project.
Which movies define your childhood? Which movies define your childhood?
Before being mesmerized by the classics like Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter and Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was TV that first captured my imagination. No, not TV shows, but the mini-series that were just debuting at that time. I actually couldn’t believe I was expected to do homework while Roots, Rich Man Poor Man, and Shogun were showing every night. They were not only adventures but melodramas. I know its a bad word – melodrama – now, but I was glued to the screen!
This moved me to try my hand at a screenplay. My first attempt was a story about a high school ballet dancer who gives it up to play on the high school football team. This mirrored my own life as the son of artists who expected me to be in art class while my friends were doing the things normal high school kids do. This screenplay won me a creative arts scholarship to the University of Maryland, who had the only film program available in the area at the time.
Who were you inspired by when stating out? And now?
When I first saw Jaws, I couldn’t believe a 25 year-old had made that film. Of course comparing myself to Spielberg was not going to get me anywhere and I had to get over it. But even now I am drawn to his story telling ability, his editing, and the way he visually tells a story.
The other important film to me was Manion of the Spring directed by Claude Berri. Here was a film with just a few actors and a few locations, but completely engrossing. This kind of film I could write and produce with a small budget and this is the kind of film I try and develop now, because I know I can get enough money to make it. What’s the use of writing films that cost so much that you will never make them unless you win the lottery! A filmmaker makes films, no matter how small.
What is your writing process? Seclusion? Public library? On the train?
Generally I write the first draft in my art studio alone. I am a painter by profession now, so as I paint on the easel, scenes and story ideas come to me. I will sit down and write and then go back to the painting. After a month or so, I will have my first draft. Then my wife Heather enters the picture. After breakfast, while the kids are at school, we will work together until lunch. I will read a scene out loud to her and she will comment and make suggestions. While I am good at plot, she is good at character development, and after another month or so, we will have a working draft.
So Murder on the Cape. How much do you want viewers to know that this is based on what happened to Christa Worthington?
I would prefer viewers know something about the story, but I know this is probably unrealistic. As in most cases, the survivors naturally tell the story. But they tell their story and they tell stories that protect themselves. I don’t mean protect them from getting arrested, but protect their reputations. As we went deeper and deeper into the story, I could see that was reported was true in one way, but not true at the same time. For example, the victim was painted by many as a “woman who got around”. This wasn’t true, she was a single woman looking for love who dated men. The convicted killer was portrayed as a monster. It became apparent that he was “just one of the guys” and no one suspected him of the crime.
This dramatization differs from the real event. How did you decide what parts to change or omit or add?
This is was very complicated but rich story. It would take several movies to tell everything that happened. For me, though, the core of the story was this unlikely relationship between a fisherman and a fashion writer. A relationship that was doomed from the start but beautiful at the same time. A relationship that happened because lives were changing and it really was no one person’s fault. And out of this tragedy a beautiful child came into this world. As we wrote, we constantly went back to this story. Is this character adding to this thru-line.
Tell us about the cast, and casting process? I see your surname a few times in the list.
My wife just happened to come into the room and ask me what the current question was! “How did you cast film?” and she said, “You cast me because I was the only actor in the movie that wasn’t going to cost you money.“ But the truth is, she said she felt undeserving of the part because she was very busy caring for our kids, writing with me and helping me produce the film, so she felt physically and emotionally unprepared for a major role in a film. But I knew how talented she was and I refused to cast anyone else, and she really deserved the part. And she knew the real Susan Jackett, whom the role is based on. This was a very small movie, so it saved a lot of money having family members work in the film!
On the first day of casting, the co-producer Judy Richland brought in a young man named Josh Walther. He had never been in a film before – just a couple of commercials. I was very skeptical when he came up for his audition, but he was good and authentic. He was from the area and had the local look and attitude and confidence that working men have here. We then went to New York and saw scores of young men trying to do fake New England accents and acting like the seasoned fisherman. None of them held a candle to Josh Walthern, and he was cast. Another casting miracle. Our choice for the Harbormaster, Jimmy, stepped out the day before he was scheduled to film. We cast our production designer, Kevin Cotter, another local, and he owned the part!
Do you feel you deceive your audience somewhat who are perhaps expecting a murder much earlier?
I feel that when the police found their suspect, they convicted him and threw away the key. To me, our ending is symbolic to what happened in real life. I am also asked, “where is the black man in the story?” If I had put him in the story, every eye would be on him. I would had to invent things that he did, relationships that he may or many not have had.
What I did know is his peers didn’t see him as the devil and that’s why early on his name never came up as a suspect. He was a guy who was very likable and one of the guys. When you watch the film, would your ideas about Sammy Santos change if he were a black man? Sammy Santos was at the wrong place at the wrong time – perhaps this is what really happened in real life, but we will probably never know.
I liked that the story touched on theme such as poverty, the decline of the fishing industry, adultery – how much of that was based on real events? How important were those themes in carrying your story?
The decline of the fishing industry had a huge impact on the old families here and still apparent here today. Most town jobs are still held by ex-fishermen or the sons of fishermen. And these weren’t poor fishermen, they were men who got rich from tuna (when tuna was 10 cents a pound!) and haddock and had large houses on the water and multiple boats. So men that pretty much ruled their worlds, now served others. Mike is one of the those men, who is looking for any way he can to save his ego.
How was the shoot? Locations? Timescales? Budget?
For a film this small, the shoot went very well. One of the reasons is that nearly every location was within walking distance of each other. The movie was very low budget, shot under the Ultra Low Budget SAG contract. The shoot lasted 19 days and we spend about a month prepping on location.
Where do you feel you fit into the big bad film industry?
As independent filmmaker, one has to make films that the mainstream studios won’t make, yet still have an audience. This story, for all it’s play in the media, was difficult to finance. It’s about a brutal murder where the only black character in the film is the killer, and this is just not a story that should be glorified in any way. Unless he didn’t do it.
Care to comment on the latest revelations in Hollywood regarding Harvey Weinstein?
We are fresh off seeing a female presidential candidate bullied on television by her rival about things her husband did behind her back. Now we see another man in power using his position to bully, intimate and probably rape innocent women. It is just unacceptable.
What is next for you, both work, and personally?
I am shooting a feature based on the play “N” by Adrienne Pender. It’s the story of black actor Charles Gilpin, who’s career is ruined when he refuses to say the “N” word on stage in 1921. When Eugene O’Neill cast 40 year-old Charles in his ground breaking play “Emperor Jones”, O’Neill broke all precedent. He was hiring an African-American actor to play not only the the lead role, but a serious, dramatic role. The custom at the time was for white actors to perform in blackface on Broadway. Despite advice to the contrary, the play opens with Charles as the lead, and it becomes a runaway hit. It is the first money making play for O”Neill and makes Charles Gilpin a huge star.
However, in the play, there is the customary gritty and realistic O”Neil dialogue, and the “N” word appears over 50 times. Charles never liked saying this word, which he thought was more than demeaning to his race, and finally he refuses to say it altogether. He is fired, and replaced with Paul Robeson, a young actor who has no trouble with the word and also becomes a star. Charles is ruined and despite efforts a compact, including another chance offered to O”Neill, he won’t abandon his principles and dies a poor alcoholic.
From joy to despair in a matter of seconds as a family congratulatory gathering becomes a tense affair in a hospital waiting room. A life is at stake, and 20 years are about to be bridged. First time feature film director and screenwriter Peyv Raz establishes the pace early with Clarity on as two cultures, two families, are forced to unite under potentially tragic circumstances. The characters are laid bare early on, huge decisions are to be made, and long lost secrets unraveled, a whiff of deceit wafts through in moments, as does the harsh reality of the two worlds. What does transpire is likely a direction you were not expecting. And that was Raz’s intention.
Having been too busy to even catch Dunkirk in IMAX yet, Raz claims a love for Christopher Nolans work, “those movies, like Memento, got me hooked on the style.”. The film-maker, who was born in England, wanted to break into the film business “from a different angle. Being a starving artist didn’t appeal to me. I did not want to be broke. If there is one industry you don’t want to get into if you’re desperate, it is this one.”. Wanting to get himself set in life first, a friend of Raz told him “All you need to make it in this industry, is a script they like, and money.” – and he went from there, and soon met industry folk, “and managed to sneak in. I spent 18 years writing 23 screenplays, and I made about 40 shorts,” continues Raz, “And eventually got close to 40 and thought, I am or am not going to do it.”. The producer that read the script, and liked it, helped raise the money to get Clarity off the ground – “We put together a very difficult, and short, shooting schedule, to see if I could get it done, that I could prove I could make a feature film.”. Now, with Clarity released on VOD tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd August), Raz is looking forward to pre-production this coming November on his next project, Possessions, the start of a trilogy, a supernatural thriller – also a graphic novel to be released at the same time.
“When I wrote Clarity I was trying to make Possessions.” he begins explaining the motivation behind it, “One day my son was sitting next to me on the couch, and on the TV came this kind of news / documentary about this problem were 100,000 children a year are being kidnapped from third world country resorts, and sold to other countries for illegal adoptions, and God knows what else.”. The screenwriter’s creative juices flowed, but with a close, moral tag attached – what would that be like if it happened to his son? “I started forming a story and a narrative about what would happen. And then to actually find the parents. I came up with the story – my son was the motivation for that.”.
With a couple of recognizable faces in the small cast, including Nadine Velazquez (Catalina in My Name is Earl), and Dina Meyer (Saw, Friends, Starship Troopers), Raz met a Scott David (has cast Criminal Minds, 2012), who said “I like the script”, and he brought up Dina Meyer. Raz goes on to add that “at the same time one of my biggest allies in Hollywood was George Folsey, who worked with John Landis as an editor, and producing partner. They did a string of films, like Animal House, Coming to America, Trading Places. And he knew Nadine from another film he was editing. He said she would be perfect to play Carmen.”- they met, and spoke about the role. Raz was in the right place with the right people.
Asked how he directed his performers for the more emotive, dramatic scenes, Raz told me: “I would spend as much time privately with them as I can, try not to have them interact with each other too much prior to the scenes. We go over the intent of the character in the scene, allow them to change some of the dialogue as long as they don’t change key words or lines, and change the intent of the scene. And they appreciate that. They can formulate it in a way that they think how they would react as the character, and not be so stringent.”. Raz’s own directing style means he would spend a lot of time prior to shooting with the DP, allowing the technical staff more say on the set so that he can spend more time with the actors.
Clarity is impressive in its color palette, the contrast of the sparse white / green medical architecture of Las Vegas, to the glowing, burning oranges of the heat of Mexico. A very intentional execution from Raz, “I felt Mexico was different from shooting in Las Vegas. We went to the slums, a very rural area, the people there were very warm, but I felt the struggles they go through are very different from ours.”. I commented that is must have been tricky to balance the time drifts as well as the change of location. But that came in the writing, so pacey at times, I was not surprised to hear how much they had to chop to make it so tight.
“Some days I got to the set, and the schedule was so tough to shoot, I was changing three pages of screenplay into one, rewriting some scenes right there and then.” a humble Raz explains, “This was while we were shooing and then in the edit with George. I was so fortunate to be able to sit with him for months to work on the pacing. His feel towards films is to keep them moving, The first time I gave him Possessions to read he said ‘that’s 192 pages! This is not The Hobbit, this is a horror film’ – that’s the way I write, so I need people like that around me to keep me from dragging things along.”.
And then we have that ending. What we were building up to all along. “We had five or six screenings, and there was a lot of talk about the ending.”, Raz goes on to reveal his importance for story, “For me, the way I write, is to write the entire story first, then worry about the dialogue, the voices. I actually wrote the ending before everything else.”. Raz ha a general belief that in life there is always a price to pay – “and that is the moral of the story at the end. The film has been shown in Spain, and people were asking me about the ending, and making outlandish theories. It was fascinating giving people something to talk about.”.
Although the varying strands of drama are elevated to a captivating level in Clarity, the plot rolls along conveniently. And with the mystery of the ending (there will be no spoilers here today), I was reminded of the suspense, melodramas of the 50s perhaps, not quite Hitchcockian, but still wondered if Raz was influenced by any of this era: “Absolutely. Film is about entertainment, not just art. My responsibility is to entertain, while giving over my voice – and you have to have a good ending. For me, every script I have written that people liked, it was because it takes them through a kind of journey, that they are not sure where it is going, and where it ends up might not be what the average person thought it was. That’s not intentional. Those are my favorite type of films. Not necessarily with a happy ending, but I have always gravitated to films like that.”. I look forward to seeing where Payv Raz takes us next.
Cinevest Interactive Inc. the New York based producer’s representative and global sales agency focusing on indie women producers and directors headed by Arthur Schweitzer has signed The Sisters Plotz Directed by Lisa Hammer, American filmmaker, actress, composer and singer. Written by Lisa Ferber, creator, writer, and actress with music by Mary Feinsinger, starring Eve Plumb (The Brady Bunch, Blue Bloods) Lisa Hammer (The Venture Bros, Maybe Sunshine), Lisa Ferber (Each Time I Kill) and Levi Wilson (Not Fade Away, Punk’s Dead) from Lisa Lisa Productions.
Also, Lisa Hammer’s 1996 short film Empire of Ache was recently acquired by The Getty Museum’s feminist film collection curated by Miranda July. Hammer is also a singer/composer, and added some vocals to an upcoming Tracy Bonham record. Her series Maybe Sunshine was recently picked up by Seeka TV.
Check the latest The Sisters Plotz trailer below, released later this year, of these madcap, musical antics of eccentric heiresses, meddling maids, a smitten butler – you get the picture. Whats all the song and dance about?
A great weekend for America in general you might say, what with July 4th celebrations, and then the World Cup victory last night. The women’s contest was thrilling and thoroughly entertaining. In fact, a remarkable tournament in all. The final, though, opened in style. Sadly for you if you tuned in twenty minutes or so after the kick-off. In fact, five minutes late and you’d have missed two Carli Lloyd goals giving USA a ridiculously early lead. The contest was kind of over soon after, and with it the bombarding coverage across the internet was incredible (apart from ludicrous and tasteless Pearl Harbor references) – cyberspace was in danger of imploding because of women playing football. Nice.
The women of America are going to destroy the internet. #USA
What else might you have missed then? Some concise movie lists, invaluable screenwriting opinion, not to mention some refreshingly pleasing photographs celebrating the July 4th weekend across Instagram (which I admit I don’t use myself – should I?). Take a look:
Throwing myself into TV Writing and Screenplay work in the month since those pesky Oscars left us alone, I have understandably no been reading or surfing or browsing as much as normal. Oh no, I have to write movies and watch loads of TV, my life is so hard, boo-hoo. But seriously, I still want to find the time to keep this blog up and running, which does include shouting out to other hard-workers out there.
Firstly, two huge events in my eyes that I would call “unmissable” were I tragically not able to attend either. Following a discussion over at Twitter with Liam and Al, I was drawn to the amazing array of world cinema showing in Bloomsbury next week is enough to make anyone explode with envy. And the films of Hal Hartley being shown with the man himself over in Los Angeles is making me very upset. Not sure how many people understand how this guy and his movies inspired me when I was starting to love and write movies seriously. I could literally cry I will miss that, I swear.
The Films Of Hal Hartley
His Films, And In Person, Over The Month Of April In Los Angeles (Cinefamily)
Auteur Film Festival
A Week-Long Festival Dedicated To The World’s Greatest Filmmakers (Curzon Cinemas)
7 Great Irish Indies
In Honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, by David Canfield (Indiewire)
Best Director
Why We Don’t Make Women into Icons, by Sasha Stone (Awards Daily)
Water Cooler Podcast
Episode 14: Guilty Pleasures, with Craig, Clarence, Megan, and Joey (Awards Daily TV)
Refresher: Emmys 2013
Contender Interviews, Tatiana Maslany Q&A For Orphan Black, with Rob Licuria (Gold Derby)
Filmotomy 
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